Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and China’s Peng Shuai defeated Poland’s Marta Domachowska and Russia’s Nadia Petrova 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 10-7 yesterday to win the women’s doubles tournament at the Bali Open in Indonesia.
The victory Hsieh’s first WTA win this year and the third of her career. It was the first time in eight years that Hsieh, who is ranked 56th on the WTA rankings and 22nd seeded Peng have played together. The magic still worked and the two can now share US$10,500 and the win adds 165 points to their rankings.
The duo did not lose a set in the run up to the final, three matches that were all over in less than an hour. The final match against Domachowska and Petrova, who had benefitted from a day’s rest, was tougher, with Hsieh and Peng needing to play two tie breaks to take the title.
PHOTO: AFP
After losing the first set in a tie breaker, Hsieh and Peng were behind 4-5 in the second set before they came back and won it in the second tie breaker.
In the third set, which was played first to 10 games, the duo showed more confidence in serving, base line and net play. The match was over in just over two hours.
The 22 year-old Hsieh will next play together with Chuang Chia-jung at the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis Tournament in Tokyo which starts tomorrow.
■SCHNYDER CLAIMS TITLE
AFP, NUSA DUA, Indonesia
Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder claimed her first WTA title in three years as she thrashed Austrian teenager Tamira Paszek 6-3, 6-0 to win the Bali Open yesterday.
The 29-year-old second seed brought more than a dozen years of professional experience to the court against her 17-year-old opponent, whose hat-trick of upset wins over seeds saw her through to the title match.
It took only 67 minutes for Schnyder to prevail for her first trophy since winning Cincinnati in July 2005.
“I’m very happy and also very tired,” said the Swiss second seed, who reached the US Open quarter-finals and is 33-19 for the season. “It’s been an amazing summer with the Olympics, the US Open and here. I really wanted to win this tournament and I did, I’m very happy.”
Schnyder won a testing first set, before rolling easily through the second. Both players showed their nerves with nine break points in the first three games, before the Swiss became the quicker to settle.
She seized control in the second to sweep to victory, which followed defeats in her last seven finals including against Serena Williams last February in Bangalore.
“She pushed me all the way,” Schnyder said. “I had to do my best and move well. She would not allow me to lose my focus.”
Schnyder called Paszek “definitely the nicest teenager in women’s tennis.”
Paszek won her only WTA title two years ago in Croatia and had beaten top seed Daniela Hantuchova in a marathon semi-final on Saturday night.
“I’m a little tired, I feel it in my legs,” the teenager said. “I spent a lot of hours on court. It’s been an amazing week for me. Playing a friend like Patty is all part of our job. We tried to keep friendship out of it and play our games.”
Schnyder’s victory marked her 500th on the WTA and improved her record in finals to 11-13.
■RUSSIA LEAD AT FED CUP
AP, MADRID
Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova gave defending champions Russia a 2-0 lead in the Fed Cup Final on Saturday by winning the opening singles matches against Anabel Medina Garrigues and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.
Zvonareva defeated Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-4 and Kuznetsova bested Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-1.
Zvonareva broke Medina Garrigues in the second game to go 2-0 up, before the Spaniard broke back in the fifth game. But Zvonareva responded with another break to go up 4-2 and clinched the first set when Medina Garrigues’ forehand went long.
The second set saw five breaks of serve before Zvonareva served out the match, clinching it with a powerful cross-court forehand as she raced to the net.
In the second match, Kuznetsova was never in trouble against the 20-year-old Suarez Navarro, who struggled with her serve and had five double faults.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS